More news from around the internet regarding the Padang Earthquakes...
Latest from www.channelnewsasia.com, which includes an excerpt on SAJC...
Singaporeans experienced two rounds of tremors in the space of two hours on Tuesday, following two earthquakes on Indonesia's island of Sumatra that killed at least 82 people there. Singapore's Meteorological Services Division said the first tremors were felt at about 11.50am after an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale struck Padang in Sumatra. The epicentre was 50 kilometres north-northeast of Padang and some 430 kilometres south-west of Singapore. The second round of tremors occurred around 1.50pm after another earthquake, also measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale, struck Padang. The Police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) received nearly 1,000 calls from the public reporting tremors after the two quakes. The tremors were felt in many parts of Singapore and in some 236 buildings. Most of the buildings were in Ang Mo Kio, Yishun, Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Serangoon, Sengkang and CBD areas like Robinson Road, Shenton Way and Suntec Singapore. Callers to the MediaCorp News Hotline reported tremors were also felt at Beach Road and Choa Chu Kang. Of those affected, 131 were HDB buildings, 95 commercial buildings and 10 private residences. Witnesses said some tall buildings in the central business district swayed slightly. Several buildings, like the Concourse at Beach Road, Capital Square and Centennial Tower in the city, and even Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Clementi, were evacuated. But the eastern parts were also not excluded as residents in Bedok and Pasir Ris reported that buildings in their areas also shook. Police said there were no reports of injuries from the tremors in Singapore. Office worker Nicholas Wong said he and his colleagues were at their office shortly before lunchtime when they felt the building shaking. "We grabbed our bags and just evacuated," he told 93.8 Live radio station. "Everyone was panicking. One of my colleagues was crying because she had never felt such an effect before. We were all rushing out of the building." But public relations executive Gavin Liow, 23, said he and his colleagues took it calmly. "I thought, what the hell was it? You don't expect such things to happen," he told AFP. Danny Tan Ming Xiong, 24, said he and his colleagues also felt the tremors. "We were kind of freaked (the) first time. My colleagues and I thought we were giddy. Everyone started asking each other if we felt it, then realised the building was shaking," he told AFP. "My company made the decision to get out of the building. We went down 40 storeys by stairs." A spokesman for Saint Andrews Junior College said the first tremor disrupted lessons and students were dismissed after the second one "to pre-empt further interruptions, and in the students' interests and safety." Another office worker told Channel NewsAsia he saw people screaming as they went out. Others felt no tremors at all but got swept along by the general reaction. "I didn't feel anything when one of my colleagues called me to evacuate," said South African Bulelwa Makina, 24. "This is my first time feeling a tremor in Singapore but because I have been here for a while, I do know that Singapore does get tremors from other countries so I wasn't shocked," she told AFP.
And the situation in Indonesia from The Star Online...
The deathtoll from two earthquakes that hit Sumatra on Tuesday has risen to 30 people.
Rescuers are searching for victims trapped under the rubble of flattened buildings.
Tremors were felt in parts of peninsular Malaysia and Singapore after the first earthquake struck southern Sumatra at 11.50am.
The earthquake measured 5.8 on the Richter scale, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department.
The second earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the scale, struck at 1.49pm, it said.
There is no threat of a tsunami.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports from Jakarta:
A powerful earthquake flattened hundreds of buildings in western Indonesia on Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and leaving hospitals grappling with scores of injured, officials and media reports said.
The magnitude 6.3 quake on Sumatra island was felt hundreds of kilometers (miles) away in Singapore, where some office buildings were evacuated, and in neighboring Malaysia.
Local TV station SCTV reported that 26 people had been killed, citing correspondents in the area.
Authorities were not able to confirm that figure, but Yunir, a regional search and rescue official, said at least 25 people were killed in Batusangkar and Solok, a bustling town close to the epicenter of the quake on Sumatra's western coast.
At least two of the dead were young children along with their teacher, who died when a two-story building crashed onto a playground.
Another woman died at a market, said police spokesman Supriadi, who goes by only one name. Town Mayor Samsu Rahim told el-Shinta radio three other people were burned alive when their collapsed home burst into flames.
"Women were crying out in terror. We all just fled as quickly as we could,'' said Alpion, a welder in the seaside town of Padang.
Along with thousands of others, he was fleeing to higher ground, fearing a possible tsunami. Authorities said the quake did not cause any tidal activity.
A witness in the town of Payahkumbuh said several two-story shops in the main street had collapsed and police and soldiers were digging for survivors.
Hospitals in Solok were overflowing with patients, many of them with broken bones and cuts, Supriadi said.
At least one hospital in nearby Padang was evacuated, sending panicked doctors and nurses fleeing with startled patients limping behind, according to Metro TV.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the tremor struck 33 kilometers (20 miles) below Solok. It was followed by several strong aftershocks.
The tremor and at least one of the aftershocks was felt in Singapore, 430 kilometers (265 miles) from the epicenter, forcing the evacuation of several older office buildings, TV station Channel NewsAsia reported.
In Malaysia's southern coastal city of Johor, citizens fled offices, buildings and shopping centers, eyewitnesses said.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire,'' an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, including 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.
A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.
Tuesday's quake hit about 900 kilometers (660 miles) west of the country's capital Jakarta.
That's all for today, I wish you all good night...
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